Italy, Licenza

Its name is linked to that of the river that runs near the village, the Licenza. Both were originally called Dicentia, having been cited in the Epistles of Horace, and connected to the Indo-European root ‘Dheig’ meaning 'embankment, levee'. Here was the villa donated by Maecenas to the poet Horace, who coined the name 'Mons Lucretilis' to designate the surrounding area. The whole valley of the river Licenza was at the time a holiday destination of the Roman patricians. The village is medieval, dating back to the period when the population required fortifications in high places to protect themselves from the Barbarian invasions. The current village is mentioned for the first time in 1275 as a possession of the Orsini, to whom it was granted by Pope Celestine III in 1191. In the first half of the seventeenth century this powerful family sold a part of the fiefdom to the Borghese.